Page 14 of Marked For Revenge

They stepped inside, automatically glancing around to take in the place. Since it was small, there wasn’t much to take in, and even the doors to the two bedrooms were both open. Ava saw no weapons and, thankfully, no sick “shrines” to her that would indicate she was the motive for murder.

“Wow,” Caleb said, still staring at her. “I didn’t expect this. I mean, I thought I might meet you one day, but I always figured it’d be just the two of us. And that I’d be better prepared for it,” he added with a nervous chuckle.

Ava found herself latching onto every word. As both a mom and a cop. And she studied his face for signs of resentment or calculation. She didn’t see any, but she had to accept that might be because she didn’t want to see it. That’s why she was thankful Harley and Theo were with her. They would be able to see anything that didn’t make it through her mental blinders.

“How did you find out who I am?” Ava asked. She had plenty of questions but decided to go with that one first.

“Oh...” he started but then held up his finger in a wait-a-second gesture.

He went to the adjoining kitchen, which, of course, put them all on alert in case this was a ploy to grab a weapon, but Caleb simply poured himself a glass of water and downed most of it.

“All right,” Caleb said, coming back toward them. He repeated those two words as if to steady himself, but there were still plenty of nerves showing when he finally continued.

“After I lost my parents in a car wreck, I was a mess and thought having answers about my bio-parents would help, so I did one of those DNA tests,” he explained. “It came back with some genetic cousins. I sorted through them until I saw that many of them were connected to the surname Walsh. I emailed some of them, asking if anyone knew who my bio-parents were, and one cousin said my bio-dad might be Aaron Walsh but that the family had lost touch with him.”

Ava felt everything inside her go still. Even with all Edgar’s wrangling to keep the pregnancy a secret, Caleb had unraveled the truth with a DNA test and some digging. Again, she had to fight the urge to fire off a bunch of questions. Questions that might alarm Caleb and have him withholding information. Right now, it was best if she just stayed quiet and let him finish.

“No one seemed to know where Aaron Walsh was,” he went on. “My roommate’s mom is a PI, so as a favor, she looked into finding him. It took more than a month, but she was finally able to track him down. She got his phone number and I called him. When I told him who I was and when I was born, he said yeah, that I was probably his son.”

There was no stillness in the reaction Ava had to that. Her heart dropped and her chest tightened. It shouldn’t have shocked her that a private investigator could get this kind of info since Edgar’s PI had managed it, but still she hadn’t expected Aaron to confirm that he was possibly Caleb’s father. Not after the threats Edgar had doled out to Aaron.

“Aaron told me if he was actually my bio-dad then you’d be my bio-mom,” Caleb explained. “So, that sent me back to the DNA cousins and, sure enough, I found a couple of your distant relatives. None of them took my calls or answered my emails, but I figured that’s because I was somewhat of a family secret.”

Oh, yes. Edgar had made sure of that, and part of Ava was glad that her father hadn’t been able to keep all of it buried. But there were some possible big problems with the truth coming out. For instance, had her father known about any of this and then set a murder plan in motion?

“How long ago did you have that conversation with Aaron?” Harley asked. And Ava knew the reason for the question. Harley was trying to pin down if learning about his bio-parents had been around the time the murders had started.

Caleb didn’t even have to pause to give it some thought. “Four months ago. I remember the exact date because it was the five-month anniversary of my parents’ deaths.”

Oh, mercy. The first murder had happened three months ago, so the timing could fit since the killer would have needed a while to work out the details of the murders. Caleb seemed awfully calm and collected for a serial killer who was now facing three badges, but Ava couldn’t use that to dismiss him as a suspect.

“Look,” Caleb continued, “my parents were awesome, and they always told me up-front that I was adopted. Because the adoption records were sealed, they didn’t know any info about my bios. I just thought it would help with my grief, that’s all.” His gaze met Ava’s. “And I never intended to interfere with your life. Or Aaron’s.”

He seemed so sincere and, heaven help her, she believed every word he was saying. Later, she’d find out if Harley and Theo did, too.

“What exactly did Aaron tell you about me and him?” Ava asked.

“Not a whole lot, and FYI, I asked him if he wanted to meet me and he said sure, but then he wouldn’t come up with a time or a place. I got the idea that he was still dealing with some bad things because of me.”

“Not because of you,” Ava quickly corrected. No way did she want to put blame for what had happened on Caleb’s shoulders. “You know who my father is?” she tacked on.

Caleb gave a slow nod. “Aaron didn’t have anything good to say about him.”

Ava didn’t spell out that was because there wasn’t much good to say about Edgar. “I got pregnant with you when I was sixteen, and my father took many steps to ensure it was kept secret.”

Oh, how much to say Ava didn’t want to come off sounding as if none of what had happened had been her fault. After all, she hadn’t taken proper precautions and had gotten pregnant.

If she’d been stronger, she could have run away, had the baby and kept him. But even then, as a teenager, Ava had known that would have ended up being a tough life for her baby since she’d had no way to support him. Added to that, she’d known her father would have carried through on his threat and made sure Aaron ended up in jail.

Considering what Marnie had told them, maybe Edgar was still trying to make that happen.

“Yeah, Aaron said he didn’t see you after you told him you were pregnant, and he figured your dad had hidden you some place. Aaron said he looked for you but couldn’t find you.”

That was probably true. She had looked for him as well, all the while knowing they could never be together. That had crushed her back then, but considering the kind of man Aaron had become, she figured a relationship wouldn’t have worked out between them. Especially with her father doing everything to destroy Aaron.

“Aaron and I wanted to keep you, but we couldn’t,” Ava settled for saying, and she braced herself, figuring that Caleb would lash out at her for not doing more.

A lashing she would absolutely deserve.

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